The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ takes crown as most-played song on Aussie radio

The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ from Universal was easily the most-played song on Aussie radio this year, generating over 30,000 spins between January 1 and December 8.

Its first play was on the Central Coast’s Star 104.5 just after midnight, and it has since scored airplay across 31 stations. Sydney’s Nova 96.9 played the song more than any other station, putting it to air 2,057 times, while the wider Nova Network accounted for more that a third of the song’s yearly airplay.

Aircheck, which compiled the figures, said the total airplay of ‘Blinding Lights’ was equivalent to listening to the song on repeat for 70 days straight.

Dua Lipa’s ‘Don’t Start Now’ from Warner was in second with 21,805 plays, while Harry Styles’ ‘Adore You’ (Sony) was not far behind on 21,140, and neither was Topic Feat A7S’ ‘Breaking Me’ (Universal) on 21,123, or Brando’s ‘Look Into My Eyes’ (Independents) on 21,057.

There were no Australian songs in the top 10 this year, a fact RCS vice president of the Asia Pacific, Keith Williams, said was disappointing.

There were 21 Australian songs in the top 100.

The top Australian placing was ‘Together’ by Sia (Independents), which came in at 12th with 16,168 plays. Tones & I’s ‘Never Seen The Rain’ (Sony) was 17th with 15,363, while Sam Fisher, Amy Shark, Keith Urban and Guy Sebastian (all Sony) all had tracks in the top 50.

Sebastian and international act Dua Lipa both had four entries on the list, more than any other artist, and collectively Dua Lipa was the most-played artist of the year with 66,457 songs, features, live versions and remixes played on the airwaves.